GRE Vocabulary Flashcards

A lot of you have been asking for GRE vocabulary flashcards, so here you go! We’ve just released our GRE Vocabulary Flashcard “eBook”! It contains all of the vocabulary words from our popular Vocabulary eBook, but the words have been reformatted from plain old text into flashcards. These cards are designed to be printed out on paper—either through your home printer or a copy shop’s :). This should satisfy students with “old school” study habits who want something tangible that they can flip through, highlight, mark up, etc. (More technically inclined learners interested in digital flashcards should check out our for iPhone, Android, and the web!)

We weren’t exactly pleased with the other GRE flashcards available on the market, so we’ve made these in true Clemmonsdogpark fashion—each card includes example sentences, descriptive definitions, and fun themes to really help the words stick.

Let us know how you like these, and if you have any other “eBook” or resource requests for our next release.

Click to download the eBook. It’s a big file (flashcards take up a lot of pages), so it’ll take a while to load. Enjoy! And see below for some tips on how to use these flashcards effectively.

Study Tips: Apply your knowledge to practice problems

While we do encourage flashcard use as a supplement to your GRE studying, nothing really beats good practice. So, make sure to put your vocab skills to use by doing plenty of Sentence Equivalence and Text Completion questions as well. have access to nearly ~400 SE & TC questions combined.

Don’t only use GRE Vocabulary Flashcards—read as well!

Although GRE vocabulary flashcards are a great starting point, they should not be the only means of expanding your vocabulary. One of the best ways to develop your personal lexicon is to read more.

But don’t just read anything—you need to focus on academic materials similar to what you’ll see on the GRE. Some great suggestions include , , , and . Anytime you come across a new word, see if you can figure out it’s meaning by scrutinizing the surrounding words. Then look up the real definition—keep this information recorded somewhere and review it often! If you do a lot of online reading, check out our that highlights common GRE words.

While our flaschcards and the Chrome Plugin include words that frequently appear on the GRE, it’s likely that you’ll run into some unfamiliar terms come test day. The best way to prepare for this situation is to practice reading until you develop a comfortable sense of logic & structure within sentences. This will allow you to decipher the meaning of unknown words simply by examining their context.

Use mnemonics to retain definitions

Brains are complicated organs, and encoding new information can be tricky. Thankfully, we can use mnemonics as a sort of “brain hack” to enhance our learning and recall abilities. Simply put, mnemonics are memory tricks that use association to assist learning. These associations can be rhymes, alliteration, historical context, opposites, or any other tool that makes a word easier to remember! Here’s a couple examples:

refers to timidity or shyness. In this respect, it’s the opposite of a more common word: confidence.

means “something that has the appearance of being true.” So when you see this word, think of something “veri-similar” to the truth.

Coming up with mnemonics for new words is a great way to help them stick!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in June, 2013 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

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About Margarette Jung

Margarette works on marketing strategy for Clemmonsdogpark and makes a lot of fun spreadsheets. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a double major in English Literature and Linguistics. Working at Clemmonsdogpark combines many of her favorite things: using email keyboard shortcuts, finding patterns, and thinking about the future of the Internet. She also enjoys dystopian fiction, Chipotle, and learning about learning.

88 Responses to GRE Vocabulary Flashcards

The BIGGEST problem with your app is that it doesn’t cover pronunciation. It is really very time-consuming to study the GRE words with one app and check the pronunciations of the words using another app. You should add pronunciations to your app. It is MUST.

Thank you for providing us with this feedback! We really appreciate it when students help us to make Clemmonsdogpark the best it can be. I’m sorry to hear that you are disappointed we don’t have the pronunciation feature on our flashcards–this is something we hope to improve on in time, but I know that doesn’t help you right now! While our flashcards don’t have a pronunciation feature, our does include the pronunciation for many of the words, which are the same as those in the flashcard app. We also recommend that students use sites like Wordnik.com to look up the pronunciation of words they don’t know. I know this isn’t ideal, but I hope it helps at least a little!

I am planning to go for GRE entrance next year as I working and need some time for the preps..I am looking for some online websites that i can go through like one that I found .. Please suggest me some more good websites

I’m not familiar with that website, but after looking through it I am a bit suspicious about it and don’t think that it would be helpful for your GRE studies. The website talks about learning hundreds of words in just a few hours, which is an ineffective way to study for the GRE. Even if you are able to learn so many words, you will likely not remember them. We actually recommend that students focus on learning just 5-10 words a day so that you really become familiar and comfortable with them. Besides, there are plenty of free resources that you can try before paying for access to a vocabulary list 🙂

The GRE cares more about your ability to recognize and use vocabulary in context than about how many definitions you can memorize. The best approach to vocabulary is to learn words over a long period of time with continuous review. In fact, we recommend that students learn by reading and learning vocabulary in context. You can learn more about this approach in our free Vocabulary eBook.

It sounds like you are planning ahead and have plenty of time to learn vocabulary. This is great! my recommendation is that you start to use our Vocabulary Flashcards and learn a few words a day. Make sure that you really understand them and how they are used in sentences. As you do this, you can start to read to improve your reading comprehension and vocabulary (find out more about this here). These are the big picture skills that you need for success in the GRE, and there are no shortcuts–you have to put in the time and energy for improvement!

Thank You sooo much for these Flashcards.
I took GRE 5 days back and I secured a score of 319- Quant(170) and Verbal(149).
Though my verbal is very low, I am happy with it coz with Clemmonsdogpark Flashcards I could never have got 149. I am taking the test again on Oct 6th, do you have any advice for me.

I’m glad our flashcards have been helping. Be sure to practice active reading strategies and learn how to understand new vocab by reading in context too. These strategies cna help you guess at the meanings of words even if the words are completely new to you. And make sure you build up your multiple choice test strategies in Verbal while you’re at it– build your skills in eliminating the wrong answers, spotting the right ones, and understanding how GRE Verbal questions are designed.

Sorry it took us a bit to get back to you! I hope you’re still studying for the GRE and have found some good resources! We strive to deal with all of the same information you need to pass the GRE but we make our own materials, so we aren’t repeating ETS official materials here. I hope that answers your question!

Great question! The GRE is graded from 260 to 340. There are 130-170 points in verbal and 130-170 points in quantitative. There is no “failing” score and instead individual universities will set their desired score levels. You can find this information on their admissions pages! You also get a separate AWA score which is your writing score from 0 to 6 in 0.5 point increments.

I don’t think i’m able to clearly understand how to print out the words. I want to have it in a similar way in the app. Word on one side and then the definition with an example sentence on the flip side. I went through the and dont seem to be finding such a format. I see the pages where the word is one side and a more of an explanation of the definition on the flip side.
Can someone help me out, unless i have something totally wrong.

I already have the eBook, but it contains around 300 words, right? I’d like to know whether there is a printable version of the entire Clemmonsdogpark GRE Vocabulary Flashcards app, which contains close to a 1000 words.

When was the GRE Vocabulary Flashcard eBook last updated? I’ve heard that the test makers keep changing the format of the test, and it seems like the book was written for 2013’s test takers. Would it make sense to print these out and study these in 2015?

Great question. The Revised GRE General test replaced the General GRE test on August 1, 2011. Since then, the format of the test really hasn’t changed much, and the vocabulary presented in our eBook is just as relevant today as it was in 2015. You can definitely feel comfortable using our GRE Vocabulary Flashcard eBook to study for the current format of the exam.

If you’d like flashcards with the vocabulary word and the definition on the same side, then I’d recommend looking at the “one-sided flashcards” printing instructions on pg. 6 of the eBook. Then, if you skip to pg. 20, you can see the one-sided version of all the vocab flashcards. 🙂

Thanks to Clemmonsdogpark for an awesome collection of Vocabulary Flashcards.
I have created a class for Clemmonsdogpark GRE Flashcards on Quizlet.
They have helped me in learning a lot and I hope it would be helpful to others too.
I am sharing it’s link and everyone is welcome to join and learn Clemmonsdogpark GRE Flashcards through Quizlet’s way!

I found ‘Sedulous’ on flashcards and on any magoosh ebook to be defined as ‘Sitting idle’, but other famous dictionaries define it in an extremely different way, as ‘marked by care and persistent effort’. Please clarify or if it’s mistakenly defined the other way on Clemmonsdogpark products, please have it changed 🙂

Reading is good “Passive” way of improving vocabulary, but when you are resorting to making lists, that is “Active” method. Problem with active method of learning words is that it is cumbersome and boring, and you doing retain and unless you use it in writing sentences to apply the word, very little chance is that you increase your lexical size.

Improve Your Vocabulary – VocabMonk is an active learning tool which is personalized and makes sure you grasp the learnt words by applying it. It is lot of fun too as you can play vocab challenges with your friends.

Hi!
I’ve been using these flashcards and they are of great help. While going through one of the words-“precipitous” in common words V deck, i found its meaning and the sentence not appropriate. Your meaning for the word reads “done with very great haste and without due deliberation”, whereas the sentence given is “He was expecting a precipitous rise in the value of a hot tech stock, but was disappointed when it only inched up a dollar or two each day”.

If we infer the meaning of this word from the above sentence, it would mean steep rise.
Please clarify.

2) It is stylistically inappropriate given that precipitous needs to be followed by something negative. The word is almost always followed by a drop, but “precipitous rise” is on the rise itself–though if this is precipitous depends on how a “prescriptivist” you are :).

I will make sure to change it. Thanks again, and sorry for any confusion!

I printed out the flashcards for my younger sister who’s studying for the GRE, and I had fun reading the sentences and background information for each word. Some of the words I’ve heard of before and I found some clips on YouTube of movies, ads and TV shows where the words are used in a humorous way.

amuck is used in the Disney movie Hocus Pocus which is about three witches who come back to life after a boy likes a candle in their old home. They are now in the modern times and they are trying to grasp the concept of Halloween.

diabolical is used in an ad for BBC America, a TV station. The ad shows a queen talking about complaints she has heard, but doesn’t notice anything wrong.

scintillating is used in an episode from the British sit-com, Keeping Up Appearances, which is about a housewife named Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced bouquet) who tries to impress her neighbors and acquaintances from the upper class, but fails every time. In this episode she puts an ad in the paper for social etiquette classes and is anxiously waiting for telephone calls. When she finally gets one, she tries to make a grand introduction by using a tongue twister.

inundated is used in the same episode where Hyacinth fetches the paper from the paperboy and asks her husband, Richard, to find the ad. She sounds exhausted because she had to catch the paperboy first. He ran away from her because one time she made him wash his ears.

turpitude is used in a Keeping Up Appearances episode where a man moves in next door to Hyacinth’s house. She is appalled at the thought of her neighbor, Elizabeth, inviting a strange man into her home, especially one who goes out draped in a towel to fetch the milk.

impertinence is used in a Keeping Up Appearances episode where Hyacinth and Richard are on an outing to the countryside to look for Iron Age remains. She makes Richard climb a tree so that he can have a better look. When they drive home, she tells him how humiliated she was.

1. Open the eBook online.
2. Click on the little icon in the bottom right corner that looks like a file. This will save the book to your desktop.
3. Alternatively, you could press the printer icon and print the book.

I downloaded the magoosh flashcard app and i must say it is super awesome. It really works well in terms of remembering the words.All this time I was fidgeting with choosing the best wordlist, i think i found the right one. 🙂 Just wanted to ask you, i have a month to go for my GRE exam. Will it be enough if i learn the words only via your flashcard app?

Thanks a ton for the e-book!
I have a small query, i have downloaded the magoosh android app and it turns out there are 250 words in it. Does the app consist of same stuff mentioned here? because for me its more easy to study over my phone. And will more words be added into the app anytime soon?
Thanks a lot again.

Thank you so much for these flash cards ,i was in dire need of these,as only 20 days more to go for my test.I would also like to know if there is any material where gre words are used in either stories or reports or in any format where we can read the material and remember them in context with the stories or newspaper reports ,that will be far more easier way to memorize,if any please please please let me know…

Sorry for asking this as I am new to this blog. I would like to know whether we need to register or sign in for downloading the flash cards? Are they free for everyone? I have been trying to download these using the link but the page is not loading and its saying you may need to sign in. My connection is very slow…so this may be a factor too.

The words in this flashcard set/Vocabulary eBook that I linked to above are a good start. There’s no set number, really– just by doing plenty of practice questions and reading (recommendations are included in the eBooks!) you’ll be able to pick up several hundred words naturally. The new GRE really tests contextual knowledge of words, so don’t worry too much about memorizing X number of words + definitions. Just do lots of reading and occasional flashcard review– this is much more fun and will be much better for your Verbal score.

Thanks a lot, Margarette. Your response is rather comforting, especially with regards to the fact that the new GRE focuses more on ‘contextual knowledge of words’. I’ve never been a fan of cramming or rote learning. On the contrary, reading is right up my alley. Fingers crossed from here on in. 🙂

Yes, thanks for catching that! There is an extra title/separator page for the French words, but that doesn’t affect the printing page numbers at all, so you can go ahead and use the page numbers from the Table of Contents, depending on which type (one- or two-sided) you’d like to print :). We’ll take that page out shortly, thanks for letting us know! 🙂

You’re welcome. It’s a really good design and effort. Will start reading soon.
Could you advise me how many words are in there , 300 I guess. Do you plan to release a bigger set soon enough for premium members or so. I really liked the way you have laid it out, no other word list looks as attractive and handy.

Yes, just a little over 300. We do have another, online (not paper/PDF) flashcard resource that we’re going to be releasing soon, which will have some of the words in this set but also a lot more, especially high-frequency words. We’ll definitely be posting that on the blog when it’s ready, so be sure to check back in a few weeks!

Great job. These flashcards are absolutely stunning. I could see that a lot of effort has gone into making these I really appreciate your effort. This is a must – print for me now. Thanks once again. Kudos to your team.

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